Contiguous (Enlightenment Panel no 1)
(2024)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
published in: Research Catalogue
Painting, digital video with dance performance, 2010-2011. Apartment renovation in central Athens (with Sean A. Hladkyj), 2016-17.
1. What happens at the borders where two colours meet? Purposefully exposing by meticulously smudging the edges of painted surfaces shows that there is a small area at the margins that remains undecided.
2. How do we formalise external sensory information? Experimenting with painterly techniques, such as pouring paint directly onto paper and moving the paper around to apply liquid paint, for the larger painting, I methodically applied processes of rationalisation and abstraction for painting a tree branch from life.
The research for the painting and the final work were produced during a painting workshop at the Slade School of Fine Art. The digital video was recorded at one of the rehearsals for a dance performance by choreographer J. Y. Corti at the London Contemporary Dance School.
The title "Enlightenment Panel" comes from Peter Sloterdijk's 'Critique of Cynical Reason', published in 1983, which critically discusses philosophical and popular cynicism.
Sonic Complexion
(2022)
author(s): Jacob Anderskov, Niclas Hundahl
published in: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
The Sonic Complexion project has investigated from an artistic perspective the musical dimensions texture and ‘klang’ (harmony), with the aim of creating new music and new perspectives. The outcomes of the project are a number of new albums, methodologies and perspectives, coming from quite different starting point in terms of how to systematically-artistically investigate texture and harmony.
En egen trykkpresse
(2020)
author(s): Ane Thon Knutsen
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
A Printing Press of One’s Own (En egen trykkpresse) is a practical examination of the relationship between art and technique, hand and spirit, thought and printing ink. The project came out of an interest in the printed medium in a digital age. Book printing has been the dominant technology for setting and mass reproducing of the printed word from when Gutenberg popularized the technique in the 1450s, and until well into the 20th century. Thon Knutsen set out to search for a professional position which allowed her to combine an artistic approach to typography and graphic form with her technical insight and historical knowledge of book printing. She found Virginia Woolf. The canonised modernist author and the feminist icon worked in parallel with both her writing as artistic practice and as typesetter and printer in her own private printing press. Through in-depth close reading of Woolf's authorship, seen through the first-hand experience as typesetter and printer, Thon Knutsen has found new ways to read Woolf, and a direction for her own artistic and research-based practice. Thon Knutsen has recreated the short story that Woolf printed in her debut, The Mark on the Wall, in its whole, but with a new aesthetic appearance. She has done this with a method that Thon Knutsen claims must have been used by Woolf; the thought and the writing must have been influenced by the experience of setting and printing as a pendulum between the spirit that writes and the hand that sets.
SIMPLICITY OF STRONG EMOTION: Study on the performance style of Frederic Mompou based on his recording of Cants Màgics
(2020)
author(s): Blanca Maria Martínez Vilanova
published in: KC Research Portal
Frederic Mompou i Dencausse (1893 - 1987) was one of the most intriguing Spanish composers of the 20th century. His music, often described as pure for its beauty and apparent simplicity, has captivated the attention of numerous critics and musicians around the world.
The majority of the production of Mompou is dedicated to the piano, instrument that he mastered despite his reluctance to perform for large audiences - similarly to F. Chopin. The aim of this research is precisely to investigate the way Mompou performed his pieces, in other words, his performance style.
My investigation is divided into two clear sections: on the one hand, chapters one and two provide the reader with a theoretical framework (biography, style, and influences; on the other hand, chapters three and four constitute the practical and most important part of my research. Concerning this last one, I analyze Cants Magics (1919), the first piece that presents a defined unique style, and its corresponding recording performed by Mompou himself in 1974. The result of this proces is the creation of a new annotated score to visually demonstrate the different expressive resources he uses to enhance the expression of his composition. Examples of these are dislocations, tempo fluctuations, voicings, rubati and pedalling. Lastly, in chapter four I apply partof the above-mentioned Mompou's pianistic techniques into other compositions from Musica Callada. These serve me to formulate an experienced-based reflection on the matter.
Performing modern music
(2016)
author(s): Pieter van Loenen
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Pieter van Loenen
Main Subject: Violin
Research supervisor: Stefan Petrovic
Title of Research: Performing modern music
Research Question: How should you go about performing modern music?
Summary of results:
In this paper, I have approached the fundamental question of how to go about performing modern music from different perspectives. Looking at the writings of Stravinsky and Schoenberg teaches us that there are different ideas about the role a performer should have. Stravinsky would ideally have a performer execute music and not ‘interpret’ it, while Schoenberg expects more expressive input from the performer. However, we have also seen that Stravinsky’s allergy against ‘interpretation’ probably stems from bad experiences with performers interpreting his music the wrong way. Present-day performers agree that his music – or any music, for that matter: the same principles apply to music of all ages – does need to be interpreted by the performer, but in the correct style.
Interpretation of a score is not an exact science. However, that does not mean it cannot go wrong. The prime directive of interpretation is that it should not go against the literal text of the score. Since notation is almost never complete, other methods of interpretation can be used to fill in the gaps. When textual interpretation does not provide enough information, the performer can resort to contextual interpretation: the context of the piece (e.g. sung text, or a structural analysis) or the context of the composer’s work in general, i.e. his style, or language. Other methods that can be used in connection with these basic types of interpretation include speaking with the composer or listening to recordings of the composer or with the composer’s approval. This last method can be problematic, since more information is always required on the value a particular recording should have: is this exactly what the composer intended or is it just acceptable to the composer within the boundaries they set?
All performers I spoke with agreed that the final step a performer should take is to make the music their own. This may seem in contradiction with the principle that a performer should always aim to reproduce the composer’s wishes; a principle that we perhaps inherited from Stravinsky. However, it makes sense when you think about it. When performing a piece, you automatically interpret the score using whatever methods are appropriate when you decide for yourself what the composer must have had in mind when he wrote it down. When you have uncovered this interpretation, and have learned the language of the composer, you must then speak this language to convey the composer’s story (as you interpret it) to the audience. That last line of communication is something entirely in the hands of the performer and that automatically “implicates the performer’s personality”, as Reinbert de Leeuw puts it. This is not problematic or contradictory, as long as the performer, when speaking the language, always remains faithful to the will of the composer.
Biography:
Pieter van Loenen is a Dutch violinist who graduated his bachelor’s cum laude at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague as a student of Vera Beths. He won 1st prize at the Prinses Christina Competition in 2010 and was awarded 2nd prize and the Audience prize at the Dutch National Violin Competition in 2016. He has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras throughout the Netherlands, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Domestica Rotterdam and the Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands. He has a special affinity with performing contemporary music.
Morton Road House
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Unrealised design for garden house in North London, 2002.
An unrealised house commission prompted my preoccupation with the question of creative value, which for architecture largely relates to the local economy. Similar to, but not quite the same as authorial or intellectual property rights, the question of creative value for writers is not connected to local economies, although it is determined to a certain degree by cultural values.
The Sonic Complexion project has investigated from an artistic perspective the musical dimensions texture and ‘klang’ (harmony), with the aim of creating new music and new perspectives. The outcomes of the project are a number of new albums, methodologies and perspectives, coming from quite different starting point in terms of how to systematically-artistically investigate texture and harmony.open exposition comments (0)
Unrealised design for garden house in North London, 2002. An unrealised house commission prompted my preoccupation with the question of creative value, which for architecture largely relates to the local economy. Similar to, but not quite the same as authorial or intellectual property rights, the question of creative value for writers is not connected to local economies, although it is determined to a certain degree by cultural values.open exposition comments (0)